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Hey, Look Them Over: The Digital Head Shot Is Here

CLICK on one of the photographs on Phillyfaces.com and the snapshot moves to center screen accompanied by personal statistics like height, eye color, dress size. Click again and the headshot starts talking, well, auditioning really. "Hi, I'm Renée Weisband -- I'm an actress, singer, dancer," one of the site's video clips recites. Then, breaking into an exaggerated British accent, Ms. Weisband starts performing what would seem -- with a lot of imagination -- to be a scene from "Peter Pan": "Wendy, look! My shadow, my very own shadow."

Ms. Weisband and the thousands of other aspiring actors who have signed up with online talent directories are hoping to find the place where stars are born -- the digital age's answer to Schwab's Drug Store, that mythical magic land where Lana Turners are discovered.

For decades, standard operating procedure for actors trying to break into the business has been to send around a black-and-white head shot with a résumé stapled on the back to every casting agent, director, producer, receptionist, even hairdresser, they could think of. Most of the time, they never get a call. But now, thanks to the Internet and some enterprising entrepreneurs, actors can hope to get a casting agent's attention with a virtual audition.

"I think the talking head shot is on its way," said Joe Chielli, a head-shot photographer who created Phillyfaces. Mr. Chielli, who charges $150 to shoot a 30-second video clip and $45 to upload it to the site, said his goal was to bring more film work to Philadelphia by creating an easily accessible casting database for directors filming in the area.

A more polished version is on Breakdownservices.com, a Los Angeles-based company that is a hub for casting information internationally. For $150, actors post what is known as an acting slate (60 seconds of talking about themselves) and for an additional $50, they can upload a performance video (60 seconds of playing Ophelia or a sufferer in a hemorrhoid commercial).

"We have 120,000 actors in our system," said Gary Marsh, the president of Breakdown Services. "We've only been allowing the video to go in since May 2004. Starting it up was slow; we now get in about 10 to 20 videos a day."

While some casting agents are unaware of the existence of talking headshots, Craig Colvin, a Los Angeles commercial casting director who casts primarily from electronic submissions, is a fan of the new technology. "I actually do use it when I don't know somebody and I need to figure out their personality," he said. "I don't have time to do generals and see people, so it's the only way you can see people."

Others are more skeptical. Erica Palgon, the associate casting director at Susan Shopmaker Casting, sees hundreds of actors in New York and Los Angeles. "I've never even heard of the talking head shot thing," she said. "It's hard enough to go through the submissions and then do that as well."

Agents are finding video clips faster and more effective than the traditional glossy photo as a way to present clients. Andrea Gabriel, a Los Angeles actress, booked an appearance on "Lost" when her agent sent a the producer a link to her posting on Breakdown Services.

Video clip or no, Ms. Alderman said most casting directors want to see an actor in person. "I'm sure it would be a good resource," she said, "but we'd be just as happy looking at head shots." Additionally, she pointed out that no matter how good the quality of the MPEG-4 or the streaming video when its uploaded, if the casting directors watch on a low bandwidth, a pixilated picture looks more like a perp walk than "Hamlet."

The Phillyfaces site claims it gets 150,000 hits per month, but Mr. Chielli does not track the individual results of its clients. Breakdown Services doesn't track clients either, though Mr. Marsh said he estimated that Breakdown Express, the section of the site open to people in hiring positions, gets 550,000 page views per day.

But there are personal testimonies. Gene Terinoni, who said he has been in the business for 30 years, said he has gotten several jobs from Phillyfaces. In his talking head shot, he says: "If you're looking for that Robert De Niro type, that Danny Aiello type, maybe that Al Pacino type, fuggedabout it. You've just found the Gene Terinoni type."

The Internet does raise some other concerns, though. "You see hundreds and hundreds of pictures of men and women and children of all ages, and much too much contact information for them, making it possible for serial killers and pedophiles to track them down," said Todd Thaler, a Manhattan-based casting director.

Mr. Chielli, who says he does not list personal contact information for underage actors, and leaves it up to individuals to determine how they wish to be contacted, agreed there were risks. "Some of the women have gotten calls from people wanting to do porn movies," he said. "That's the Internet, that's life in America."

Still, Mr. Chielli has big plans. He foresees a day when everyone from doctors to hairdressers can introduce themselves electronically. "I did it with the hope of using it on a more commercial level," he said. "We finally have a dentist that did a clip."

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A version of this article appears in print on October 23, 2005, on Page 2002007 of the National edition with the headline: THEATER; Hey, Look Them Over: The Digital Head Shot Is Here. Order Reprints|Today's Paper|Subscribe